White Icing (not fondant)

[TeaOneSugar]

How would you cover a sponge cake to look like a snow scene?

DD wants a club penguin cake but doesn't like fondant, I'll either be making some club penguin figures out of fondant (which can be taken off her piece) or I'll be buying a ready made topper, dependant on time.

Any ideas would be appreciated.

Maybe mix some 'standard' (i.e. the slightly runny icing sugar, lemon juice and water variety) with dessicated coconut and swirl it around when pouring over?

If she doesn't like fondant, I assume she won't like any kind of sugary icing? You could use 250g mascapone, a couple of tablespoons of icinging sugar just to sweeten it a bit, and about 50g of coconut mixed together, spread that over the cake (it's thick so try to sort of encourage it rather than spread it) and then sprinkle with more coconut to make it 'snowy'. You could sprinkle over some edible glitter too to make it christmassy.

She actually likes all icing except fondant, she ate far too many black fondant penguins from last years cake and made herself ill (party food and excitement helped), so she now insists she doesn't like fondant.

I'm liking the coconut and glitter idea.

I wondered about covering it in buttercream but I thought that might not travel well, although I could encourage her friends to have a piece of cake for pudding rather than taking it home.

Any thoughts on Italian meringue?

Marshmallow frosting. Google it, its fabulous and much more pliable as well

And Italian meringue is a PITA to make in y experience!!

What about royal icing? Icing sugar, water, egg whites. It's sets hard but you can use a fork to make it fluffy/peaky looking before it sets. .. You might need a layer of marzipan between it and the sponge though?

I can do royal icing, but I wasn't sure you can do it on a sponge cake.

I've only used it for christmas cakes.

Cooked American frosting, it isn't white white, because it has butter in it, but it's off white/cream and it's delicious. Google the recipe but basically you heat flour and milk in a pan like you're making a sauce until it's thick, then cool it completely until it's absolutely cold, and put it in a mixer with butter and granulated sugar and vanilla essence. It sounds like it should be horrid, gritty, floury, and it isn't at all, it's like dream topping off trifles, like sweet cream. It doesn't keep terribly well so you need to make it as near to when you want to use it as possible. It will make soft peaks like softly whipped cream. Perfect for a sponge cake. hth

I'd do royal icing, it should be ok on a sponge I reckon and you could sprinkle glitter or coconut on the peaks.
My mum always did our christmas cake with lovely peaks to look like snow. I pop some glycerin in so it's not rock hard, which would make it easier to cut and hopefully stop the sponge cake breaking up!
Maybe apricot jam on first to give it something to stick to?

Rachel Allen's American Frosting is great, gives a really nice slightly crunchy on the outside finish which peaks really nicely. Makes an horrific mess of the kitchen but is worth it. www.cookingchanneltv.com/recipes/rachel-allen/walnut-cake-with-american-frosting-recipe/index.html

I have done royal icing on chocolate sponge as I wanted it to be pure white. Worked well but used powdered egg white not fresh. It didn't set hard but stayed quite squishy. Not sure if that was the powdered egg white as I didn't but much glycine in.

cream cheese icing with white chocolate? google it, agree mascarpone with coconut. Or white chocolate granche however it wont be pure white. You can use glitter and sparkles to give it that wow finish.

Im not convinced royal icing on sponge.

Mmm not sure about royal icing either.

I wasn't sure either, but it worked really well. Don't knock it til you've tried it!

True!